The present invention relates to refrigerator and freezer cabinets and their method of construction and is more particularly concerned with a cabinet including an improved magnetic gasket construction for preventing sweating of the cabinet door in the vicinity of the sealing gaset and provides easy assembly of the door.
A well known type of magnetic gasket designed not only to seal the space between the door and the cabinet face but also to maintain the door in a closed position by attraction of a magnetic means carried by the gasket with a magnetic metallic area on the face of the cabinet comprises a base portion including means for securing one longitudinal edge of the base portion to the door and a tubular portion containing the magnetic means. The gasket is an extruded resilient material such as rubber, polyvinylchloride or the like. The flexibility or resiliency of various portions of the gasket is controlled by varying the cross-sectional thicknesses thereof in order that each portion may perform the desired function or functions. For example, the base portion which is secured along its outer edge to the door assembly, must be sufficiently thick and rigid so that its inner free edge is normally in engagement with the door surface and maintains an insulating dead air space beneath the gasket base portion when the door is in a closed position. However, the gasket must be sufficiently flexible so that it can be folded back during assembly of the door and gasket to provide access to the fastening or anchoring means employed to secure the one edge of the gasket to the door. Within the range of manufacturing tolerances, it is possible to so design the base portion that the inner or free edge will maintain contact with the inner door panel. However, in certain applications involving either a relatively large door or large differences between the cabinet interior and ambient temperatures, the door may bow to such an extent that the free or unanchored edge of the gasket pulls away from the adjacent portion of the inner door panel, thereby permitting the free circulation of the refrigerated air into the space beneath the gasket where it contacts the gasket retaining means. The resultant heat transfer through this area to the outer door panel results in sweating on the outer surface of the door. A typical construction and gasket to solve this problem is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,053, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention.
Special skills and sometimes a lot of rework is required to overcome the inherent gasket mounting problems to make certain that the gasket is properly positioned on the cabinet door to assure good sealing characteristics. As is often the case, such as in the construction described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,053 referred to above, the gasket is pinched causing the thin outer edge of the gasket to be distorted. In addition, there is a tendency for the gasket to roll causing the front edge to be turned under when the fasteners are tightened. The gasket also has a tendency to be caught between the inner door and the retainer, resulting in gasket distortion.
By this invention, there is provided a refrigerator cabinet and method of constructing the cabinet which includes a gasket configuration which overcomes the above-mentioned gasket mounting problems.